The Association is run by a committee of volunteers. They are elected, or re-elected, each year at the AGM and organise the events, the newsletter, the website, and maintain contact with South Georgia’s government and other bodies.
The SGA Committee Members
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David Tatham CMG – President
Head of the Falkland Islands Desk in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1987-90. Commissioner for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (and Governor of the falklands) 1992-1996. David has since written the Dictionary of Falkand Islands Biography (including South Georgia).
Philippa Foster Back CBE – Chair
Mrs Foster Back has a distinguished career in finance and business and numerous Polar connections. She is currently Chairman of the Antarctic Place-names Committee and has formerly chaired the Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute (FoSPRI), the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and the South Georgia Heritage Trust. From 2001 to 2020 she was Director of the Institute of Business Ethics.
Fran Prince – Secretary
Treasurer – Vacant
Sadly, with the untimely death of John Owen in January 2022, the Treasurer post is vacant for a numerate SGA member to fill.
John Stafford Mills – Membership Secretary
John Mills is a public affairs advisor and Fellow of the Royal Geographical
Society, who has served on the South Georgia Association Committee since
2014 as Membership Secretary. John’s passion for travel and exploration took
him to South Georgia in 2010 on a private expedition to follow the route
taken in 2016 by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Frank Worsley and Tom Crean, from
Peggoty Bluff in King Haakon Bay to the whaling station at Stromness.
Paul Rodhouse DSc – Events Organiser
Paul’s role is Events Organiser on the committee. His connection with South Georgia started in December 1986 when he arrived at Grytviken aboard the John Biscoe just in time for Christmas. As a biological oceanographer, specialising in squid and their role in the Southern Ocean ecosystem, he returned in a Japanese squid jigger undertaking fishing trials in 1989 and in the Biscoe during her last season in BAS service. He continued to visit regularly for over twenty years and was responsible for much of the planning for the new research station at King Edward Point and its applied fisheries science programme. He was at KEP for the station’s opening in 2001 and was principle scientist for the programme until he retired from BAS in 2013. He now keeps his connection alive by painting South Georgia landscapes and seascapes, historical sites and wildlife in oils.
Adrian Fox – Newsletter Editor
Adrian is an Emeritus Fellow at British Antarctic Survey, worked at BAS from 1990 to 2022 and was Head of the Mapping and Geographic Information Centre 2003-21. He has been a member of the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee since 2004 and was Secretary from 2014-2022. He has been closely involved with mapping, place names and other geospatial projects for South Georgia, and completed field survey campaigns on South Georgia in 2011-12 and 2021-22.
Something for the newsletter? Contact Adrian HERE
Sarah Greenwood – Communications and Social Media
Sarah Lurcock – Initiative Funding Coordinator
Sarah lived and worked on South Georgia from the early 1990s until 2020. She spent three months living in Stromness Bay refurbishing the cemeteries in 1998/99, ran the Post Office for some years,and was Director of the Museum at Grytviken from 2011 to 2022.
Prof. Phil Trathan OBE, DSc
Phil is an Emeritus Fellow at the British Antarctic Survey. Before retirement, he was the UK senior ecological adviser to the management organization responsible for Southern Ocean fisheries, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Phil also led provision of scientific advice to the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, informing the designation of the SGSSI sustainably managed Marine Protected Area. Phil was also active in the first and second revisions of the SGSSI MPA and continues to pursue activities related to the Scotia Sea and South Georgia.
Pat Lurcock – Website Manager
Pat served as GSGSSI Government Officer on South Georgia from 1992-2017. He was part of the team that traversed the length of the island on foot in 1999 and spent six months on the island as part of the team that determined in 2018 that the rodent eradication had been successful. He still visits as a staff member on cruise ships, and has also been part of the SGHT Museum team.
Bruce Mair
Bruce worked for BAS from 1974 – 1978 firstly in Brimingham and later in Cambridge. He carried out geological mapping on South Georgia around Drygalski Fjord and Larsen Harbour, and along the southwestern coast up to Undine South Harbour, in the austral summers 1974-75 and 1976-77. In 2009 he revisited the island as an expedition member on Pelagic Australis.
Robert Headland
Botanist. Historian. Was at King Edward Point when the Argentines invaded in 1982. wrote the definitive history and bibliography of the island to 1982.
David Rootes (Acting Treasurer 2022)
David has been a member of the SGA since its inception. With Bob Burton and Fran Prince, he organised the first SGA symposium in 2003. David worked for British Antarctic Survey from 1976–84, during which time he visited South Georgia on a number of occasions. After BAS, he completed a Master’s Degree in Polar Studies at SPRI, Cambridge, before starting Poles Apart Ltd, an environmental and logistic consultancy.
Returning to South Georgia in the 80s and 90s, David completed environmental and whaling station surveys for GSGSSI, and provided logistic support for various film projects including Shackleton and IMAX productions and various documentaries.
David is now manages the environmental side of Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions LLC, a tour operator based in Salt Lake City, USA. This has the great benefit of being able to return to Antarctica regularly and keeping in touch with the polar community through international meetings. David keeps active by exploring the tracks and trails of West Cambridgeshire.
Alexandra Shackleton
Granddaughter of Sir Ernest Shackleton
Deirdre Mitchell – Corresponding Member (South Georgia)
Deirdre is the South Georgia Director of the SGHT and runs the Museum at Grytviken during the southern summers. She has been involved on South Georgia and the wider polar regions since joining the Museum team as Curatorial Intern in 2014.
Jan Cheek MBE – Corresponding Member (Falkland Islands)
Spending her childhood on South Georgia, Falkland Islander Jan maintains a special interest in the island. She has a particular interest in the Museum and the island’s history.
Martin Collins OBE
Martin works at BAS where he is Director of Science for King Edward Point. He served as the Chief Executive and Director of Fisheries for GSGSSI from 2009 to 2015, during which time he drove the creation of the Marine Protected Area in the territory.